UMC suburban college student lied about background to become prestigious Rhodes Scholar

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:From the Penn response (TLDR: it wasn't the mother who outed her - NYT columnist Nick Kristof did her in!):
"Fierceton’s Story is Exposed
44. The Philadelphia Inquirer story, published just one day after Fierceton was awarded the Rhodes Scholarship, spread her false story outside the confines of faculty inboxes and admissions folders. Written by Wendy Ruderman, it began: “Mackenzie Fierceton grew up poor, cycling through the rocky child welfare system. She bounced from one foster home to the next.” Nicholas Kristof, a New York times journalist, retweeted the Ruderman article. On November 23, Fierceton sent a tweet to Mr. Kristof, thanking him for retweeting the article.
45. Former acquaintances in Fierceton’s hometown took note as the story circulated around the country. On the same day that Kristof retweeted the article, Penn received an anonymous email. The author first noted their relationship as a former friend and classmate of Fierceton’s (then-Mackenzie Morrison), and offered this insight: I was very surprised at the inaccurate portrayal of her life. … Where I strongly support her activism surrounding the foster care system, I find her claims disheartening. Growing up in the foster care system, being a first generation student or growing up in a low income household brings real hardship … That hardship cannot be attributed to someone who had the privilege to live in a graduate school level educated home and go to a private, college prep school. It pains me to see the girl we all supported, housed, and rallied behind when she left her mom’s house to falsely claim the hardship of others for her own gain.
46. The anonymous email was only the beginning. People from the St. Louis area who knew Fierceton called Penn, identifying themselves by name and refuting Fierceton’s portrayal as a low-income, first generation student who grew up in foster care."

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Her claiming she's a poor foster care kid is akin to trying weed at a party in 12th grade and telling everyone for the rest of your life you're recovered drug addict.

ZERO CHANCE she EVER disclosed to anyone on these scholarship committees her mom is a successful medical doctor. I would bet anything.

Did you read the long legal analysis post that I wrote earlier? It's a fact that she was in foster care, and thus she's legally allowed to report herself as low-income. She had no need to disclose to anyone that her mom was a successful medical doctor.

Now, you can dispute that she put herself in foster care, or whatever else some of these posters are baselessly alleging, but that has not been proven with facts.

Yes, her mom was a successful medical doctor. So what? She was in foster care, so her biological family's financial status is not material. By the way, if you actually read Penn's detailed response, they themselves state that they contacted the Questbridge CEO and asked the Questbridge CEO to review her QB app. The Questbridge CEO stated that the way she filled out her QB app was fine, and specifically that she was allowed to represent herself as low-income.

Oh, so her few months (?) in "foster care" just deleted her mom from her life? Deleted how 13 years of private school was paid? Deleted that she grew up a rich white girl with a medical doctor mom in a mansion for 17 or 18 years? Yeah, totally "justifiable" to NEVER mention ANY of that to anyone. If you're a con artist trying to steal and get over on people.

Nice rant but all irrelevant. As a legal matter, yes, her mother was out of her life whether you like it or not.

How were the last 2 years of her high school paid? I’m not aware that he mother paid for them; I expect that she did not since MF was now a ward of the state. It’s possible that the state paid for it but unlikely. More likely is that the school covered the cost with financial aid.

I saw pictures of the house she grew up in, and it is not a mansion.

The fact is that she missed the first month of her junior year of high school as the result of injury, hospitalization, and a diagnosed seizure disorder. She then had that year disrupted by the need to relocate to foster care. With that kind of disruption to her life it’s amazing that she graduated from high school much less achieve at honors level and be elected student body President. She literally spent half of her high school career, the more important half for college admissions in foster care and beyond. For those 2 years she was not at all living the life of a rich kid in a “mansion”.

She doesn’t need to justify why she didn’t mention how and where she grew up to anyone. She included the information that was required. Her high school guidance reviewed her application and endorsed it. To this day, Questbridge says that she filled it out appropriately.

Please don’t get all hysterical on us with self-righteous indignation. You have posted baseless accusations filled with exaggerations and misrepresentations. Maybe you should look yourself in the mirror instead of condemning her for the same things you’re doing.

PS - She’s not a con artist and she didn’t steal anything.

DP
No. Saying you have seizures or information that you were hospitalized for seizure-like episodes is not "a diagnosed seizure disorder." That requires actual EEG evidence of specific epileptiform patterns, which it nowhere indicates were identified.

Diagnosed seizure disorders are things such as Lennox-Gastaut syndrome, West syndrome, "benign childhood epilepsy with centrotemporal spikes," etc.

What has been made available is entirely consistent with an emotionally disturbed young woman with "non-epileptic seizures," or pseudoseizures. I'm sure it would have been named if it were an actual specific diagnosed disorder -- that's much more dramatic.

Okay. The hospital records reportedly say that she was retained there for treatment of a seizure disorder.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Didn’t Penn and the Rhodes committee have access to the hospital records in their investigation? I thought they did.

I have to think that they would be highly inclined to find any way they could for her to keep her scholarship and degrees, because this looks so embarrassing for both institutions. Therefore I think the odds of wrongdoing by Fierceton seem high. Universities never, ever want to admit they made admissions mistakes.

I don’t think they were wrong to admit her - she could clearly do the work and excelled. I do think this is a reflection of what happens when universities and awards etc put a lot of chips down on the “personal hardship” narrative.

I question the honesty of her academic achievements in light of these revelations.

Astute point.

Astutepoint about what? Her academic achievements are a matter of record.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This girl clearly went through trauma in high school and was indisputably in foster care until she aged out. I don’t really care if she was melodramatic in the telling!

Indisputably? Penn asked for real names of the troubled foster siblings she wrote about and she refused to name them. So if she's making up foster siblings, what else is she lying about? Where did she actual live during this time? Was she even actually placed in a foster home?

The fact that she used pseudonyms for the foster sibs doesn’t mean they don’t exist. There could be lots of reasons why she didn’t want to put herself in the position of publicly naming them. Personal safety for starters.

Where she lived is not in dispute. In their response to her lawsuit, UPenn itself names the 3 families she lived with during her year in foster care and names the family that she continued to live with during the year after she left foster care.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Her claiming she's a poor foster care kid is akin to trying weed at a party in 12th grade and telling everyone for the rest of your life you're recovered drug addict.

ZERO CHANCE she EVER disclosed to anyone on these scholarship committees her mom is a successful medical doctor. I would bet anything.

Did you read the long legal analysis post that I wrote earlier? It's a fact that she was in foster care, and thus she's legally allowed to report herself as low-income. She had no need to disclose to anyone that her mom was a successful medical doctor.

Now, you can dispute that she put herself in foster care, or whatever else some of these posters are baselessly alleging, but that has not been proven with facts.

Yes, her mom was a successful medical doctor. So what? She was in foster care, so her biological family's financial status is not material. By the way, if you actually read Penn's detailed response, they themselves state that they contacted the Questbridge CEO and asked the Questbridge CEO to review her QB app. The Questbridge CEO stated that the way she filled out her QB app was fine, and specifically that she was allowed to represent herself as low-income.

Oh, so her few months (?) in "foster care" just deleted her mom from her life? Deleted how 13 years of private school was paid? Deleted that she grew up a rich white girl with a medical doctor mom in a mansion for 17 or 18 years? Yeah, totally "justifiable" to NEVER mention ANY of that to anyone. If you're a con artist trying to steal and get over on people.

Nice rant but all irrelevant. As a legal matter, yes, her mother was out of her life whether you like it or not.

How were the last 2 years of her high school paid? I’m not aware that he mother paid for them; I expect that she did not since MF was now a ward of the state. It’s possible that the state paid for it but unlikely. More likely is that the school covered the cost with financial aid.

I saw pictures of the house she grew up in, and it is not a mansion.

The fact is that she missed the first month of her junior year of high school as the result of injury, hospitalization, and a diagnosed seizure disorder. She then had that year disrupted by the need to relocate to foster care. With that kind of disruption to her life it’s amazing that she graduated from high school much less achieve at honors level and be elected student body President. She literally spent half of her high school career, the more important half for college admissions in foster care and beyond. For those 2 years she was not at all living the life of a rich kid in a “mansion”.

She doesn’t need to justify why she didn’t mention how and where she grew up to anyone. She included the information that was required. Her high school guidance reviewed her application and endorsed it. To this day, Questbridge says that she filled it out appropriately.

Please don’t get all hysterical on us with self-righteous indignation. You have posted baseless accusations filled with exaggerations and misrepresentations. Maybe you should look yourself in the mirror instead of condemning her for the same things you’re doing.

PS - She’s not a con artist and she didn’t steal anything.

DP
No. Saying you have seizures or information that you were hospitalized for seizure-like episodes is not "a diagnosed seizure disorder." That requires actual EEG evidence of specific epileptiform patterns, which it nowhere indicates were identified.

Diagnosed seizure disorders are things such as Lennox-Gastaut syndrome, West syndrome, "benign childhood epilepsy with centrotemporal spikes," etc.

What has been made available is entirely consistent with an emotionally disturbed young woman with "non-epileptic seizures," or pseudoseizures. I'm sure it would have been named if it were an actual specific diagnosed disorder -- that's much more dramatic.

Okay. The hospital records reportedly say that she was retained there for treatment of a seizure disorder.

Is there a record available online of the actual hospital record, not a third party accounting of it? Because this is a mistake non-medical people make a lot.

If it's an actual diagnosed seizure disorder, the type is named. It would be all over the chart, especially for billing purposes. Reference to "seizure" and nothing else, especially with particularly phrasing, is a real red flag that they aren't epileptiform seizures.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This girl clearly went through trauma in high school and was indisputably in foster care until she aged out. I don’t really care if she was melodramatic in the telling!

Indisputably? Penn asked for real names of the troubled foster siblings she wrote about and she refused to name them. So if she's making up foster siblings, what else is she lying about? Where did she actual live during this time? Was she even actually placed in a foster home?

The fact that she used pseudonyms for the foster sibs doesn’t mean they don’t exist. There could be lots of reasons why she didn’t want to put herself in the position of publicly naming them. Personal safety for starters.

Where she lived is not in dispute. In their response to her lawsuit, UPenn itself names the 3 families she lived with during her year in foster care and names the family that she continued to live with during the year after she left foster care.

Sure. But their existence would probably be a part of what comes up in court, and this could be established as real, if it were, without the details being a part of the public record.

She should definitely pursue a court case and bring this up. Or maybe sue and count on a settlement outside of court, which Penn will definitely agree to at this point.

[Anonymous]

^^I mean, she doesn't have to take it to court, but it looks like she is doubling down on that. So she should move forward only if she understands that anything entered into evidence will be cross-examined, and she doesn't always have control over what is entered into evidence -- especially if these claims are already a matter of public record, since there is no requirement of personal knowledge there.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:An article says she's still headed to Oxford, so how was her life interrupted? I wonder how she's paying for Oxford...

The article actually says she was “admitted” to Oxford and “is studying” foster care. Given her idea of what constitutes honesty, I expect this means that she “was admitted” in the winter of 2020-21, before Rhodes withdrew the scholarship, lost the spot when Rhodes told the doctoral program she had withdrawn, and “is studying” foster care independently, from Prof. Norton’s attic.

If anyone finds an Oxford doctoral program that lists her as a student, i will change my view, but for now I believe she’s still in Philly.

[Anonymous]

DP. Agreed. There is a pattern of choosing words very carefully and taking advantage of common interpretations of those chosen words to tell this story.

If someone is saying multiple times about you that "she didn't *actually* lie," you are likely either new to this language or have a habit of blurring the lines around the edges when you think you can get away with it.

[Anonymous]

The two articles I’ve read made references to living with friends and on friends’ couches, presumably rich friends from her private high school.

Where is the proof she actually lived in random foster homes?

[Anonymous]

When we talk about lying in this case, it is necessary to keep in mind that Penn has also been repeatedly lying and that Penn is also very carefully choosing their words. They have high powered lawyers representing them, who are master wordsmiths working diligently to protect their client’s interests. It’s not like UPenn and their representatives are truth seekers in this process.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The two articles I’ve read made references to living with friends and on friends’ couches, presumably rich friends from her private high school.

Where is the proof she actually lived in random foster homes?

The legal response from UPenn names three Foster families. Not random.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The two articles I’ve read made references to living with friends and on friends’ couches, presumably rich friends from her private high school.

Where is the proof she actually lived in random foster homes?

It’s in UPenn’s legal documents which have been submitted in response to MF’s lawsuit against the university. They name the 3 foster families with whom she lived and the one with whom she continued to live in her senior year after she left the foster care system. I believe that the UPenn response document was linked earlier in this thread.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The two articles I’ve read made references to living with friends and on friends’ couches, presumably rich friends from her private high school.

Where is the proof she actually lived in random foster homes?

It’s in UPenn’s legal documents which have been submitted in response to MF’s lawsuit against the university. They name the 3 foster families with whom she lived and the one with whom she continued to live in her senior year after she left the foster care system. I believe that the UPenn response document was linked earlier in this thread.

She lived with 3 totally random Foster families in 1 year? Or she was technically in the foster system and crashed at 3 rich private school friends’ families homes? She herself admitted to staying at friends’ homes — why and how would a nearly 18 y/o woman with options to stay in rich friends’ homes ever live in a random foster home? It’s illogical. And she can’t name any of her alleged foster siblings from that year. It doesn’t pass the smell test.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:When we talk about lying in this case, it is necessary to keep in mind that Penn has also been repeatedly lying and that Penn is also very carefully choosing their words. They have high powered lawyers representing them, who are master wordsmiths working diligently to protect their client’s interests. It’s not like UPenn and their representatives are truth seekers in this process.

Fair enough.

And whether Mackenzie Fierceton made up a story full of woe-is-me and pathos to get attention and to get a lot of potential educational debt paid off in the most drama llama way possible, in part by appropriating the experience of other lifelong underprivileged kids both by lying and by exaggerating (and by those carefully chosen words) -- that is an entirely separate question.

We can talk about both. Sure. But let's not pretend that one excuses the other, especially not the egregious one.